


Et à la fin

by sarcasticnotsardonic



Category: Switched at Birth (TV)
Genre: F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-13
Updated: 2016-03-13
Packaged: 2018-05-26 11:35:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6237016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcasticnotsardonic/pseuds/sarcasticnotsardonic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Well, word broke that "Switched at Birth" is ending after these next 10 episodes.  </p>
<p>As a fan of Bay and Emmett, this is simply my wish for their ending.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Et à la fin

It’s odd, this feeling that she has right now. She should be nervous. Aren’t most people on this day? And yet, she isn’t. In fact, she’s the calmest she has ever been. Maybe because after everything, all the tears, the drama, the heartache. After all the running around, the back and forth, she’s exactly where she needs to be - **they’re** exactly where they are supposed to be. Where they were always destined to be.

 No more obstacles and mistakes. Nothing they cannot face since they have weathered it all.

 She begins to sign as Daphne interprets to the guests. Sure, she could have done it herself. After all, she’s been simcomming for the last nine years or so. But there’s something now about her being silent and only signing to Emmett that makes this moment more special. More theirs. If there was one thing she remembered from her early days of learning ASL, is that while it was hard, it was also an insanely beautiful and intimate language. And today, of all days especially, she wanted this moment between them to be intimate.

 “At the beginning, there was confusion. There was uncertainty and doubt. There was jealousy and anger, and then….then there was you. And there was me. And at the end of the day, it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t biologically related to my parents, that you were Deaf and I wasn’t. It wasn’t Hearing Bay and Deaf Emmett. It was just us. Just a boy and girl who were falling in love for the first time.”

 She stops for a minute to collect herself because dammit, she’s emotional. It’s her prerogative, though, is it not? It’s her wedding.To Emmett. Wasn’t there a time she thought there was no way for this to happen? Of course. So, if she needs a minute to look at the beautiful boy she’s about to marry and take it all in, she’s allowed it.

 She laughs a little at her description of Emmett. Of course he is beautiful, but a boy? He’s a man. He’s _her_ man. But there was a time he was a boy and she was a girl. Idiots, they were. Maybe they still are today. But at least they’d be idiotic together.

 Emmett gives her a look, one that is so many things combined. Gentle, loving, concern. “Are you okay to go on? You sure you want to do this?” The big (well, okay, not so big. Honestly, it was really just their immediate family and some of the Carlton crew) wedding was more for Bay’s sake. Emmett would have been happy to just elope. He told her as much.

 “Let’s elope and then go to some cheesy motel with heart shaped jacuzzi bath tubs and mirrors on the wall.”

 Bay had playfully smacked up. “That’s the kind of wedding you want?”

 “No,” he told her, this time with no playfulness in his tone, “I don’t want a wedding. I want a marriage….a life with you. That’s all I ever wanted. The rest is just extra.”

 And at first, she was okay with that. But then she started to long for a ceremony with people there that she loved. A way to memorialize her and Emmett’s love in front of people that they both loved.

 And Emmett? Well, Emmett just wanted Bay to be happy. Plus, he did want Melody there. And Cameron too, with Debbie and little Sebastian in tow. Speaking of, Sebastian seemed to be making quite the move on Abby, you know, in the way only little seven year olds can do.

 Neither of them wanted a huge to-do, as in 200 of their “closest” friends *cough* country club folk *cough*. They wanted simple.

 And simple is what they got. Out on the Kennish lawn where “Dawn of the Deaf” was filmed, Bay & Emmett were going to pledge their love for each other.

 Bay steadies herself and continues.

 “It wasn’t easy by any means to get here, where we are now. I know most people would say don’t focus on the bad, but I don’t see it as focusing. It’s not dwelling either. We need to remember the past - our past - so that we don’t ever take our relationship for granted again.”

 And they had. Both of them were guilty of that. But in the three years that they had been back together, it was different. They took extra care of their relationship. Like a newborn, they gently rocked it, fed it, nourished it, laughed with it, and just sometimes stared in awe at it.

 When she and Daphne returned from China, it had all been a whirlwind. A lot had happened, had changed, but the one thing that remained was Bay’s love for Emmett, and Emmett’s love for Bay.

 Life is funny. You make plans and sometimes those plans pan out right away. Other times they don’t at all. And then sometimes they do later on. Because of this, Bay had been no stranger to disappointment. So when she made the decision to re-apply to Pratt, she didn’t tell anyone. Honestly, she wasn’t expecting to get in.

 But, you know, life.

 It was a few days before she was to leave for New York when it struck her, this unbearable pain. Homesickness. But how? When she hadn’t even departed for New York yet? Only, she would come to realize, it wasn’t homesickness for her actual home….but for Emmett. Emmett and Skye had broken up earlier in the year. Bay didn’t know all the details. She didn’t want to, either. She had seen Emmett around a little over the summer. Despite both being single, they did their best to avoid each other. It’s like that line that Spike tells Buffy and Angel. Her and Emmett could never be friends. It would hurt too much.

 But somehow a few nights ago they had found themselves in each other’s orbits. It wasn’t planned; it just happened. She had been out walking. Even in her big house, she had this choking claustrophobia. She needed air.

 And of course walking on the same street was Emmett. Her Emmett. But he wasn’t….or was he?

 They laughed at the coincidence and then laughing turned into walking. They ended up near this park and maybe it was the reminiscing “Remember when you freaked out that woman at the club we were trying to get into looking for Angelo?” Or the moonlight. The “bug” Emmett claimed he saw in her hair and his offer to get it out. Or maybe it was just them. But they kissed.

 Now, it’s no secret that Bay had kissed many guys. They weren’t awful. Some were even quite nice, but Emmett’s kisses were….how can one accurately describe them? They made Bay weak at the knees, made her dizzy, made her believe anything was possible. And when they were over, she needed time to recover.

 Emmett had smiled sheepishly. “Sorry. I shouldn’t….”

 He had started it. He leaned in, but she saw the leaning….and didn’t stop it.

 “No, no, it’s okay….”

 “It is?”

 And there it was. Hanging there.

 But then Emmett’s phone buzzed.

 “Everything okay?”

 “Yeah, it’s just my mom. I should get home.”

 “Oh, yeah. Of course.”

 “Um, goodnight, Bay.”

 “Goodnight, Emmett. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”

 God, why couldn’t the earth have swallowed her whole right then and there?

 Who says that? Honestly?

 But his kiss left her off kilter. Some things never change.

 She had spent the past few days trying to forget about it. What was the point? He still had another two years left of school and she was getting ready to leave for New York.

 But then, looking at her Frida Kahlo quote above her bed, she came to the realization that Emmett was her reality. He was her everything. And she needed to tell him that. Whether he felt the same way back, she needed him to know.

 So, she came up with a plan. A plan that took her almost a full day, but then he was in front of her in the back of the Cracked Mug.

 “What’s that?”

 “I, uh, re-did our timeline. I know it’s not in the same place so I lose points for nostalgia purposes, but I figured, ya know, another felony conviction wouldn’t be wise.”

 She looked as Emmett took it all in.

 “Bay -”

 “No, don’t say anything yet. Just let me. Please.”

 Emmett nodded.

 “I have made some terrible mistakes. I have hurt you. You have hurt me. There were times I was so paralyzed with fear and anger that I couldn’t…..I couldn’t give my all to you. Like I should have. And I know that we can both be jealous and I can be reckless and impulsive. You can, too. We are not perfect. I know it’s never going to be easy with us. I don’t know how our story will end. But I know this. Six years ago, you came into my life unexpectedly. I went looking for my family and what I found was you. And finding you changed everything for me. I’ve been in love with you since I was sixteen and I knew it back then. I know it now. I’ll know it tomorrow. I understand you want to focus on your career and I respect that. I’ll give you as much time as you need. But I just want to be with you.  Whenever that is. Wherever you are. In LA. In Kansas City. I just want to be with you, Emmett.”

 Sometimes it’s hard to believe that was three years ago. Emmett of course had reservations about doing long distance again, but he, like Bay, just wanted to be together. And It was important for them to grow their own lives apart. It would be a good test of their renewed love. Two years earlier, they hadn’t been ready for it. Now maybe they would be.

 It was not easy, but it was better. They made it work.

 Maybe they should have waited more than a year after graduating college (Emmett with his Bachelor's, and Bay opting to get an Associate's with the caveat that she might continue her education later on) get married, but that was Bay & Emmett. Always surprising the world. Never doing what others expected.

 And so here they are.

 “You’ve been my constant, my compass, my direction, my….everything. So, today, I stand before our family and closest friends and vow to always be honest with you, always love you, always take care of you and to let you take care of me. I take you, Emmett, my best friend, to be my husband. I do.”

 Emmett returns the sentiment with equally loving vows and his own “I do.”

 -

  _A Week Later_

 “Okay, here’s the last of it,” Toby says as he saunters down the driveway with a box labeled “Frida.” Then he takes Emmett aside and whispers with his signing “You really gonna let her put this crap up around your new house? Some of it is kind of freaky.”

 Emmett gives him a “hell no, that’s going up in the attic,” look that he makes sure Bay doesn’t see.

 Kathryn is already starting with the tears.

 “Oh, Mom. C’mon. It’s not the North Pole. It’s only California.”

 John rubs her shoulders in an attempt to comfort her.

 “Hey, my baby is married and is moving away. I’m allowed to be sentimental!”

 Bay just rolls her eyes and laughs.

 “I want you guys to drive safe and call every few hours. And stop off at a hotel. You have time to get back to LA.”

 He pulls Bay into a hug.

 “We will be safe, Dad. I promise.”

 Regina throws her arms up and squeezes Bay.

 “I am so happy for you two. I always thought you made a cute couple.”

 “Thank you. You’ll come and visit?”

 “Oh, of course!”

 Then it’s Toby’s turn.

 “When do you go back to London?”

 “In a few days. You guys promise to come out there soon?”

 “Definitely. And you need to come to California,” Bay reminds him.

 “I will. We will.”

 “Well,” Bay says, turning to Daphne. “I guess this is it. Time to move on to the next chapter.”

 Daphne nods, holding in her tears.

 “You go kick some ass out there, Vasquez.”

 Daphne laughs.

 “You go kick some ass out there, too, Kennish.”

 After they hug, Bay gets into the U-Haul. In the rearview mirror, she sees her past and yeah, it chokes her up. But then Emmett takes her hand and she knows it’s not a competition. This is how it’s supposed to be. Emmett is her future. And she’s ready for all their future together has to offer.

 In the beginning, it was two girls whose lives were forever intertwined due to a mistake.

 In the beginning, it was two families becoming one.

 In the beginning, it was a boy and a girl just starting to figure it out.

 At the end, it’s just them.

  _Et à la fin_

 


End file.
